Antonelli on pole again, Verstappen out in Q2

Kimi Antonelli grabbed his second career pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix, also his second in a row, as Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2.

Antonelli enforced his dominance on Mercedes team-mate George Russell so far this weekend, with the Italian youngster quicker than his elder in the last two free practice sessions as well as Q2 – by six tenths – and Q3 – by three.

The pecking order was mostly unsurprising in Q1: Ferrari and Mercedes led McLaren at the front, while the Williams, Cadillac and Aston Martin cars lay in the drop zone – like they did in both qualifying sessions in China – with five minutes remaining.

Late improvements by Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon allowed the Spaniard to jump to 15th, with Oliver Bearman out in Q1 with a shock 18th-fastest time – the Haas driver currently stands in a remarkable fifth place in the drivers’ championship, but adding to his points tally will be a tall order this time around.

The troubled Aston Martin squad ended up 21st and 22nd on struggling Honda’s turf, some three seconds off the pace.

Oscar Piastri then set the early pace in Q2, leading the Mercedes by three tenths, before Charles Leclerc, then Antonelli went even faster.

Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly established themselves as the two midfield cars in the top 10 after the Brazilian’s team-mate at Audi, Nico Hulkenberg, comfortably topped the midfield in Free Practice 3.

The Red Bulls, however, were on the cusp of elimination. A late effort by Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad earned him 10th place, kicking Verstappen out of Q3.

“I think there is something wrong with the car mate, it’s completely undriveable suddenly in this qualifying”, Verstappen told his race engineer on the radio. “Jumping on high speed in the rear suddenly.”

The first Q3 run saw Antonelli set the first 1m28s lap of the weekend, a 1m28.778s, with team-mate Russell a whopping three tenths down in 1m29.076s despite similar times in the opening sector of the lap.

McLaren outperformed Ferrari with Oscar Piastri three tenths ahead of Lando Norris and Leclerc, as Lewis Hamilton ended up one further tenth in arrears. The sole remaining Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was exactly 1.2s off the pace.

Neither Mercedes driver improved on their times in the second run, despite Antonelli setting the fastest final sector overall. Neither did the McLarens and Ferraris, in fact, so the order of the top six remained unchanged.

Gasly, however, impressed by snatching seventh place away from fellow countryman Hadjar, with the Alpine under one second away from pole position.

Bortoleto and Lindblad will make up the fifth row of the grid on Sunday.

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying results

Photos from Japanese GP – Saturday

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